Fuselage construction



Patented May 24, 1932 TES PATEN T onirica GIUSEPPE M. BELLANCA, OF NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION Application filed November This invention relates to aircraft and more particularly to an improved fuselage for airplanes and a method for making same.

Heretofore fuselages for airplanes have beenvmade of wood or metal framework covered with surfacing material of some sort, such'as airplane cloth or sheet metal. While bodies built in this manner haveproved 7 very successful, they have severely taxed the lo skill of the designers in securing the necessary degree of strength while preserving the lightness of construction. Furthermore,

manufacturing fuselages of this construction entails many difficult and expensive machine 'l5 and manual operations and requires considerable time.

The primary object of this invention is t0 overcome the above and other disadvantages in the prior art. V'20 Another object of this invention is to provide a fuselage construction in which the surfacing or covering material is made up in a plurality of similarly curved sections.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a fuselage, all continuous surfaces of which are formed with the same curvature.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a fuselage, the surface of which is made up in a plurality of parts, all of which may be formed with the same compound curvat-ure.

Another object of this invention is to provide a method of constructing airplane fuselages in which the time and expense required to properly cover the fuselage frame is reduced to a minimum.

lVith the above and other objects in View this invention consists of a fuselage having a covering made up of a plurality of plates, the plates all being of the same curvature so that they may be formed on a single die.

It is to be understood that the term plate,

as used in this application, is not limited toV metallic plates but is intended to refer to sheets made of any substance capable of being formed or shaped such, for instance, as ply-board. I

For the purpose of facilitating a clear understanding of this invention, one embodiment thereof has been illustrated in the acs, i936. serial No. 494,3c3.

companyingdrawings, and specifically vset forth in the following description, it being clearly understood' that any changes may be made in this embodiment which do notdepart from thescope of this invention as defined by the vappended claims,

In the drawings: i VFigure 1 is a plan View of'an airplane fuselage embodying my invention.

Figure 2 is aside View of the fuselage il1ustrated in Figure l.

Figure 3 is a section 3 3 of Figure 1. Figure 4f is a section taken along the line 4 4 of Figure land,

Figure 5 is a detail view of one of the plates covering the improved fuselage.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is vshown diagrammatically in Figure l an airplane, parts of which are broken away for the sake of conservation of space. As here shown thisairplane consists of a fuselage to which are attached the wing 1 and the customary empennage. This empennage consists as usual of tail planes 2, fin .3, elevators 4 and rudder 5.

Referring now to Figures l to 4 inclusive, there is illustrated a fuselage embodying the novel construction of this invention.' The frame is so constructed that `the outer surface of the fuselage willibe formed with the same curvaturefromy nose to tailand the same curvature about its circumference at taken along the line all points from its nose to its tail. Thus v Y the surfacing will'be such that any given part will possess'a compound'curvature identical with that of any other part.V

In forming' theV surfacing material the preferred method is first to cut, form, vor stamp out the plate sections 6 in the corlectoutlines for the various positions which they areto occupy. Then, since they. all are to be formed with the same compound curvature, they may all be formed in asingle die. After this is done. all that remains is to rivet or otherwise fasten the various plates in their respective positions on the longron members 7 and 8. i

If desired, instead of cutting. or stamping l the plates to size before the forming operal tion, the blanlrs may first be formed in the die and applied to the frame. The superfluous parts of the plates may then be trimmed off by hand or by a. portable trimming machine.

While in the illustration shown in the drawings the plates are shown as having parallel edges other shapes might be used as well. For instance, in the drawings it willbe seen that keach half of the fuselage represents the portion of a torus which would be cut of by a plane passed parallel to the axis and at a distance therefrom equal to or greater than the mean radius of thev torus. The edges of the plates' are defined by planes passed through the torus parallel to each other and to the axis of the torus and perpendicular to the. firstmentioned plane. It might'instead be desirable to define the edges of these plates by planes passed through the axisofthe torus'and forming equal angles with each other. In such acase the plat-es would all be identical except for their length.' It will be seen that these plates might-then all be stamped out on identically the same pattern before the forming operation. Then after'being applied to the frame their ends could be trimmed to the proper length in the manner above described. The advantage of this method lies. in the fact vthat all the plates may be cut out on a single pattern instead of each beingon a different pattern. as in the `formshown in the drawings. Theznumber of plates used may of course be varied according to the judgment of the designer, eithera greater or a smaller number being used.

y Tt willbe appreciated that the fuselage might'be materiallvwidened by separating the two portions of the torus along the central plane of the fuselageand coveringthe gap thus formed with plate or other members of any` desirable shape. Bv this construction the available space within the fuselage mav be greatlyy increased.

It will be appreciated that by making the as defined in the appended claims, it being distinctly understood that the prior art and ythe claims alone are to be definitive of this invention.

I claim:

l. An airplane fuselage having an outer surface such Athat if it be divided into two equal parts-by a longitudinal vertical plane, each part will represent that portion of a torus cut off by a plane passing through the torusparallel to the axis thereof and at a distance from said axis greater than the mean radius ofthe torus.

2. An airplane fuselage having an outer surface'cons'isting/.of a plurality of plates, each ofsaid plates representing thatfportion of a torus which isdeiined by three planes parallel to the'axis of the torus, twoof said .planes being `parallelto each other and ,perpendicular to thethird, said third planeicut ting the torus at a distance from the axis equal to or greater than the mean radius of the torus. i

In testimony vwhereof I affix my signature.

, a eiUsierPE BELLANCA.-

covering for the fuselage of a plurality of A comparatively'small plates and fastening each one rigidly to the longron members, the frame will be materially reinforced, allowing the elimination of some of the usual frame bracing parts.

It will be furtherv appreciated` that there has been provided a fuselage which has most of the advantages embodied in those formerly in use. and which is, in addition, much easier and cheaper to manufacture.

Also, there has been provided amethod of manufacturing fuselages for airplanes in which 4a'number of pieces of manufacturing apparatus may be eliminated. It is noted. as above pointed out, that vari ous modifications may be made in the method and apparatus herein disclosed and described without exceeding the scope of my invention 

